L. Holmquist, S. Kalmring & C. Hedenstierna-Jonson (eds.), New Aspects on Viking-age Urbanism, c. 750-1100 AD. Proceedings of the International Symposium at the Swedish History Museum, April 17-20th 2013. Theses and Papers in Archaeology B THESES AND PAPERS IN ARCHAEOLOGY B New Aspects on Viking-age Urbanism, c. 750-1100 AD. Proceedings of the International Symposium at the Swedish History Museum, April 17–20th 2013 Lena Holmquist, Sven Kalmring & Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson (eds.) Contents Introduction Sigtuna: royal site and Christian town and the Lena Holmquist, Sven Kalmring & regional perspective, c. 980-1100 Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson.....................................4 Sten Tesch................................................................107 Sigtuna and excavations at the Urmakaren Early northern towns as special economic and Trädgårdsmästaren sites zones Jonas Ros.................................................................133 Sven Kalmring............................................................7 No Kingdom without a town. Anund Olofs- Spaces and places of the urban settlement of son’s policy for national independence and its Birka materiality Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson...................................16 Rune Edberg............................................................145 Birka’s defence works and harbour - linking The Schleswig waterfront - a place of major one recently ended and one newly begun significance for the emergence of the town? research project Felix Rösch..........................................................153 Lena Holmquist........................................................28 Starup Østertoft – a landing place and set- Birka in tradition and research tlement with a church from the 11th–12th Björn Ambrosiani.................................................40 Centuries Anders Hartvig........................................................168 Elites, networks and the Finnish connection in Birka Aachen and Cologne in Carolingian and Ot- Ingrid Gustin............................................................43 tonian times and the Viking raids Sebastian Ristow......................................................177 Hedeby’s demise in the late Viking age and the shift to Schlesvig Antwerp (Belgium) – a ninth century Viking Volker Hilberg...........................................................55 town? From Early Medieval trading place to Ottonian power centre Dries Tys & Barbora Wouters....................................188 Geomagnetic survey at Hedeby Hochburg Andreas Viberg & Sven Kalmring.................................74 What Scandinavians may have seen and experi- enced in Miklagarðr: the urban fabric of Constan- Kosel-ost: a Viking-age settlement in the hin- tinople during the Middle Ages terland of Hedeby Jesper Blid...............................................................196 Tobias Schade............................................................82 Baghdad and Samarra. Imperial capitals of the Husby and the equestrian graves in Angeln Abbasid Empire and Schwansen – different chronological stages in the development of a royal adminis- Andrew D. Petersen.................................................203 tration? Thorsten Lemm.........................................................89 New Aspects on Viking-age Urbanism, c. 750-1100 Introduction Fig. 1. Well attended lecture room at The Swedish History Museum. Conference participants engaged in commited discussion (Photo: Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson). The idea to hold a joint conference comparing the Vi- central to the conference, were addressed. king age sites of Birka and Hedeby in a larger context An attempt to relate and compare these two sites arose when a guest researcher was sent from the Centre solely with each other is not novel at all: as early as in of Baltic and Scandinavian Archaeology in Schleswig to 1926, Sune Lindqvist pointed out the close connec- the Arkeologiska forskningslaboratoriet at Stockholm tions between the two maritime trading centres in his University, an initiative sponsored by the Alexander article “Hedeby och Birka”, published in the periodical von Humboldt foundation. This act led to a vivid de- Fornvännen. In 1941 Herbert Jankuhn penned an ar- bate about the two iconic early urban sites among the ticle on “Birka und Haithabu” in the Ahnenerbe peri- organisers. An inspiring workshop hosted by Laila Kit- odical Germanien on the sites’ different nature in trade. zler-Åhfeldt and Riksantikvarieämbetet, entitled “Där Today, scholars perceive Birka and Hedeby as two of förändringen börjar”, was held in February 2013 in the very few proto-urban centres in rural Northern Eu- Visby, where many related topics, which would become rope, both of them nodal points in the long-distance 4 Introduction Fig. 2. Post-conference exkursion to Gamla Uppsala. Conference participants climbing the Royal Mounds (Photo: Jana Marikova). trading network of their time. In fact, both sites not The specific aim of the conference was the discus- only have similarities in terms of their extraordinary sion of structural aspects of Viking age urbanism at two size and differing structural logistic details, but also specific regions in lake Mälaren in Eastern Sweden and feature direct links, such as the missionary attempts by at the Schlei fjord at the margin between North and the church of Hamburg-Bremen and bishop Anskar († Continental Europe. There is still no simple explanation 865) or certain comes or prefectus vici safeguarding the for Viking age urbanism and rather old models, such as kings interests on-site. However, the traditional roy- German geographer Walter Christaller’s (1893 –1969) al-administrational and cultic centres of the regions, as central place theory, are still in use. In recent years, im- e.g. Gamla Uppsala for Uppland, remained seemingly portant progress has been made regarding questions of unaffected by the establishment of the new and quite structural details, creating a new basis for the inspired alien economic centres. It was only with the Christian discussion: Birka research has focused on the fortifica- high medieval towns of Sigtuna and Schleswig that all tions, the still submerged harbour areas and the general of the functions merged at one place. layout by means of large scale geophysical surveys, while 5 New Aspects on Viking-age Urbanism, c. 750-1100 there are ongoing excavations in Gamla Uppsala due to outs and Central-Site Functions of Contemporaneous the development of the Ostkustbanan. For Sigtuna, the Superregional Centres” on day two introduced the the- insightful Trädgårdsmästaren excavations have recently matic extension. Where possible, pairs of sites were cho- been reported. In Hedeby, large-scale geophysical and sen to test the question of the very location of adminis- metal detector surveys have been carried out and im- tration, cult/religion and trade. In the Western Europe portant aspects of the large settlement excavations, its session, Winchester/Hamwic (Martin Biddle) and Co- harbour and its burial grounds have finally been pub- logne/Aachen (Sebastian Ristow) as well as in the Cen- lished. With Füsing and Husby in Angeln, potential roy- tral and Eastern Europe session Rjurikowo Gorodischt- al sites have been located by means of metal detection, sche/Nowgorod (Evgenij N. Nosov) and the Hradschin while Schleswig is currently the focus of a large Volkswa- and Suburbium of Prague (Jana Marikova-Kubkova) gen research project. Finally, with the Swedish-German were presented. After a poster session, the section was excavation at the hill fort of Hochburg next to Hedeby, concluded by the Southern Europe and Middle East a new level of cooperation has been reached. sessions on early medieval Constantinople (Jesper Blid In order to assure the thematic frame of the confer- Kullberg) and Abbasid Baghdad/Samarra (Andrew Pe- ence colleagues were asked to give papers on predefined tersen) followed by a synthesis of the section (Barba- topics related to the problem. The symposium itself ra Crostini). In the evening, the participants enjoyed was divided into two main sections: the first part was a conference dinner at the Swedish History Museum. entirely focused on Birka and Hedeby, their broader The next day a post-conference tour was led in Gamla hinterland and declared successors, and the second part Uppsala (fig. 2), where the current excavations (Lena emphasized developments in the presented regions, Beronius) and the site itself (Ingmar Jansson) were pre- where participants were confronted with examples sented. from the most important centres of the world at that As a cooperation between the Swedish History Mu- time in order to put the results into perspective (fig. 1). seum, Stockholm University and the Centre for Baltic Here, speakers on Anglo-Saxon England, the Carolin- and Scandinavian Archaeology, the international sym- gian Realm, Bohemia, the Rus’, the Byzantine Empire posium was well received and attended by more than and even the Muslim Caliphate were enlisted. With 100 auditors. We are much obliged to the Swedish His- the examples of Constantinople and Baghdad/Samarra tory Museum for hosting the symposium which was especially, the latter two as major capitals of the then kindly funded by the Letterstedtska föreningen. The known-world were recognised as the utmost important subsequent publication of the conference proceedings thematic opening. was made possible by the support of the Centre of Bal- The symposium started off with a public evening